Baked, poached, roasted, grilled, brûléed, sautéed, or broiled - fresh cooked fruit quickly and easily becomes a seasonally delicious and healthy dessert!
To note: not cooking fruit and just easting is as it is also technically a dessert! But here we’re focusing on cooked fruit… in all it’s glorious variations!
We'll need 3 things: fruit, liquid, flava!
Fuit: it's literally the reproductive body of a seed plant known for having sweet flesh. All edible fruits work. Choose based on the seasons and what's local to where you are at that time. The flesh will be yummier and we vote for what kind of world we want to live in by what we choose to eat.
Liquid: from the most basic/common water to any liquor, citrus juice, tea, coffee, and everything in between!
Flava! as in it can't just be fruit and water. Flava can take the form of spices, fresh and dried herbs, vanilla bean, ginger and so on. And salt + sugar! Th flavca can also come from your non-water liquid.
We so often think of desserts as needing to include some combo of butter, cream, sugar or chocolate. But all dessert literally means is the sweet course to be eaten at the end of the meal. And guess what friends?! Fruit, especially at its peak ripeness, is damn sweet! Cooking it makes it even sweeter! And there’s infinite combinations of what can be done to it with just a bit of cooking! So, on that note I’m….
Creating a centralized round up of cooked fruit desserts!
It's meant to be a blueprint for cooking fruit that inspires and empowers you to play with the fruit, liquid, flava combo and come up with your own dish! Wanna add a splash of your limoncello to your berries or poach pears in an espresso, bourbon, date syrup, vanilla liquid... you do YOU!
The fruits are divided by season, as they are in Cali. Obvi what’s in season changes based on where exactly you are in the world. The idea is to tie fruits to their season, whatever that may be for you.
Whether I’m tasting the very first of the cherry harvest in April, surrounded by juicy stone fruit abundance in June, deseeding a pomegranate in September or marveling at the color of blood oranges in the winter – fresh fruit always reminds me of the seasons.
Disclaimer: starting summer '20 - rest of seasons coming in real time.
Why Cook Fruit for Dessert
- Intensify the fruit flavors! Cooking concentrates their natural sugars, making them sweeter. Add salt for greater depth of flavor.
- Quick and Easy! Recipe can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be! But in just 5-10 minutes you can literally whip up a dessert for any season (the source of heat does the rest of the work)
- Soften hard, unripe fruit! Cooking fruit slowly at lower temperatures can help it ripen and soften!
- Versatile! Baked, poached, roasted, grilled, brûléed, sautéed, or broiled, water, lemon juice, orange juicy, brandy, wine or more, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, coconut sugar, jaggery, star anise, more – there’s a plethora of fruit, techniques and liquids, spices and more to play with!
- Healthy! Fruits are packed with all sort of essential vitamins and minerals! I generally serve it with vanilla ice cream and it def makes the ice cream healthier! YAY for seasonal nourishment... cooked fruit dessert style!
Let’s eat locally, let’s eat seasonally, and let’s quickly and easily make some healthy fresh fruit desserts!
Summer
Gently poaching rhubarb transforms this tart, fibrous veggie into sweet, lusciously silky and decadent goodness than can be enjoyed in so very many possible ways… both sweet and savory style!
Roasted Cherries
Roasting cherries caramelizes their sugar giving them a greater depth of flavor! This quick and easy recipe results in glistening, shiny, plump cherries that can be enjoyed in so many possible ways!
Roasted Strawberries
Super quick, easy and versatile roasted strawberry recipe! These sweet n’ juicy strawberries can be eaten as-is or used to top your favorite summer treat, taking it to the next level!
Baked Peaches/Stone Fruit
Baking peaches brings out their natural sweetness for a quick and easy sweet summer treat with endless possibilities!
IF IT'S A FRUIT...IT CAN BE COOKED!
Rest of seasons coming at ya... in real time 2020!
If you feeling fall before I get there, check out these poached pears in my Spiced Red Wine Poached Pear Cake and skip the cake.
Have ya tried any of these cooked fruit recipes? I’d love to hear about it and see it too! Please leave a comment below and take a pic and tag it on Instagram with #chefdanielagerson. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to see more colorfully delicious food and all sorts of awesome adventures!
Let’s make waves in the kitchen!
nice post. very important and informative discussion.Thanks for sharing a nice site.
vapedubai
Super stoked to hear ya enjoyed my cooked fruit post! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave some sweet feedback :).